It seems that with the information available colors can be duplicated in the AG 111. Some lead time would be required.

The permanent rust sealer can be top coated with any other paint.

Imron is running around $250 a gallon plus $56 for part B which is the hardening agent. Imron is a fleet coating which is comprised of an acrylic/polyester blend. AG 111 is a full polyester. And runs at 150 a gallon which is sold in a kit form. The most expensive part of the system is part B. Most polyesters are a 4 to 1 mix ratio. AG 111 is a 2 to 1 mix which gives it its superior solvent resistance as an anti-graffiti coating. This coating can be brushed quite nicely. If you have a particular color p.m. me and I will check it out Pat

Pat - we have a few projects potentially on the docket when things start straightening out and we can generate some cash again. One will be basic black so that’s the easy one. The others will need to be matched to specific historic colors. If we were to send color samples, can they be accurately matched?

For those that aren’t familiar, industrial/marine coatings manufacturers that can tint to spec use spectrographic analysis in the lab with calibrated equipment to determine the exact pigment quantities to achieve a match and is thus also reproducible any time you need more. It’s similar to the process in house paint stores but much more accurate.

At the least, we’d be willing to give your sealer a shot.

Hello Eric I'm waiting for a response from IRM to see how well we did on a gold color for them. I spoke to lab guys and they have equipment to do matching. The problem with specialty colors if they do a very small batch there are extra fees involved. They would prefer to mixed 50 gallons at the time. If I knew a popular color that other museums could use I would stock that color. As far as gloss black, satin black, flat black, Farmall red, safety red, safety yellow and some of our stock colors would not be any kind of a problem..Paint prices lately have gone insane If I could save museums money in their preservation work I would do anything possible to see that happen.Pat

A basic, dare I say generic, "Pullman Green" (and I use quotes because I'm well aware that there are so many variations on that color) would be welcome.

And so would a generic "Freight Car Red".

Howard P.

Thank you Howard I will have someone do research on these particular colors and see how many of these colors there are and what it would take to vary the colors. It seems there are seven different shades of pullman green.I see a number of companies sell model railroad paint. Are any of these paints even close that could be used as a wet sample?

Matching to model paint is a bad idea for a number of reasons:

1) The model paint suppliers tend to not have extensive color labs, nor do they have customers with the horsepower to insist on correct matches. I used to buy Floquil Polyscale from Testors in one to five gallon lots for the production painting of models, and their batch to batch (sometimes can to can) color consistency was abysmal. Testors is an RPM company, so the expertise exists someplace in the corporate hierarchy, but not at Testors.

2) there is a theory that some lines of model paint ascribe to that says model colors must be lightened, because models are typically small objects viewed indoors and should match the viewer's perception of what the large object looked like in bright sun.

3) No one has ever seen an object the size of a railroad car painted with the model paint in bright sun, so no one actually knows how it would look. The match, such as it is, is between the model and the perception of what it should look like. Matching to the model color runs the risk of the final job having a strange yellow or blue cast that wasn't evident on the model, even if viewed outdoors.

I agree with Howard that "Pullman" green would be useful as a stock color. In addition to museums, there are certainly enough tourist railroads that need something for coach color that won't feel it warrants a custom match.

Thank you Dennis.. We have the basic colors in reds and greens and yellows and with slight modification I'm sure we can come up with colors that would be acceptable.

Polysiloxane is made by the big companies under their own brand names. Sherwin Williams is Sher-loxthane. Basically this is an marine coating and in speaking to Sherwin Williams coatings they sell this to Disney and Knotts for coating the park rides. Marine industry paints ships with it and bridge builders paint bridges with it. Basically it is the best you can get for those applications. It uses a catalyst and can go direct to metal, DTM. PPG has it's own answer to Imron and will probably last as long. Best part is that the single stage urethanes made other than imron are half the cost. The paint manufacturers have customer help and will walk you through the paint catalog and application methods.

Hello Bob thanks for your input. In 32 years that I have been in industrial coatings business I've watched Sherman Williams and PPG go around the country and by up all independent industrial coatings companies. There will come a time in the future that they'll be the only game in town and you'll pay their price for what other companies developed and sold at a reasonable price. Everybody's touting these direct to metal coatings ,as far as I'm concerned this is just a shortcut. As for California with their stringent laws I doubt if you going to get any coatings that will withstand the test of time. Only time will tell.As for your marine coatings it's the exact same formulations ,all you do is slap a Marine label on it and price goes up. When you metal prep surface and leave a zinc phosphate film, then seal it with an airtight primer followed by a 2 component polyester topcoat there is not a hell of a lot more you can do then that.